South Sudan denies accusations of Sudanese rebel support in UN report

May 18, 2014 (JUBA) – South Sudan has vehemently denied it is using the Sudanese rebels in the fight against rebels allied to former vice-president Riek Machar, stressing that it remains committed to the terms of the cooperation agreement it signed with Khartoum.

A South Sudanese army (SPLA) soldier holds his rifle near an oil field in Unity state on 22 April 2012 (AP)

A report released on 8 May by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) on the human rights situation revealed that Sudanese rebels, namely Darfur’s Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), were providing military support to government troops fighting rebellion in the country, which erupted in mid-December last year following a split in the ruling SPLM party.

However, defence Minister Kuol Manyang Juuk denied that his country harbours or provides any military support to Sudanese rebels, saying it severed its link with rebels fighting the Khartoum regime when the country seceded from Sudan in 2011 following a 2005 peace deal which ended a brutal civil war spanning more than two decades.

“There are no foreign forces I know in this country fighting besides the SPLA (South Sudanese army) against the rebels of Riek Machar,” said Juuk in an exclusive interview with Sudan Tribune on Sunday.

He said his government had shown its full commitment to implementing a cooperation agreement with the Sudanese government pertaining to security matters.

“This agreement, I mean the cooperation agreement, which contained security arrangements, has the mechanisms which can be used to address security matters,” he said.

“They (the Sudanese government) are very clear on such matters, especially the support to the groups which are hostile to the state they are operating against,” he added.

Juuk maintained that any foreign military support would be obtained through proper legitimate channels of the country in question.

“We are an independent state with sovereign authority. If we need any foreign support, we can do that with another independent state with full legitimacy and sovereign authority,” he said.

“We have cooperation agreements with several countries and we have done this with legitimate governments and authorities. So if we need support of the Sudanese people, we will do that through their government and not individuals or groups,” he added.

The revelations contained in the UN report of Sudanese rebel involvement in the conflict backs claims by pro-Machar forces that Sudanese rebels have abandoned their own cause to support the SPLA in Upper Nile and Unity states. Both states have been the scene of heavy fighting, changing hands several times during the conflict.

Last month, South Sudanese rebel fighters claimed to have killed and wounded dozens of Sudanese rebels fighting alongside the government after fresh clashes broke out in Unity state.

Rebel military spokesperson Brigadier General Lul Ruai Koang said in a statement at the time that vehicles seized during the clashes bore JEM markings and were painted in the rebel group’s colours.

The claims, however, were rebuffed by the SPLA’s spokesperson, Colonel Philip Aguer, who described the allegations as “propaganda”.

JEM has also repeatedly denied the allegations, calling on rebels to deliver JEM fighters to UNMISS in order to prove their claims.

JEM has been engaged in an armed insurgency against the Khartoum regime in Sudan’s western region of Darfur since 2003.

(ST)

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19 May 2014 07:49, by Jalaby

We know it since day one that SPLA are using Sudanese rebels to fight with them Nuer rebellion, Juba government is nothing but bunch of thieves and liars!
Let them continue to deny using Sudanese rebels and for sure they will find some people who believe them because they’ve no other choice but to believe them like Mr. Rommel LOL LOL!

Jalaby if JEM support Kiir or not supporting this is non of your business,messira militants also backed Machar from Heglig,this is game u can,t understand because you are civilian and journalist,i have the photos of Nuer killed kin Abri even prisoners of war,we are crying not for that,man cannot cried but show action.

Dear Jalaby
Shut your mouth on South Sudanese affairs, Jalaby did you really solved your own problems in your own house? why you always concentrated on our affairs, we knew you‘re a southerner who grownup on the street of Khartoum and brought up by the Sudanese army forces (SAF) and recruited in to the army in 1990s in-order to fight your brothers in the South .please distance yourself away or ot

Otherwise you will disappear at any time right away from today; secondly you killed a lot of peoples in the south during civil war so you’re on the waiting list of the murderers who will be trial soon mark my words

I always fell ashamed seeing a supposedly big ’person’ like Kuol Manyang Juuk lying in the name of the country I called home under the sun shine whereby everything going around the country is no longer a secrete! JEM,M23, SRF presence in the country is not some thing a big man like you could embarrass himself denying ! what made the peace talk be postponed then in Addis ?

Nuers are proven liars and always like exaggerating situations and issues. In the recent Re-capture of Bentiu by the Rebels, Nuers were assisted by ’JANJAWEED MILITIAS" of Sudan. Is there any one preaching it on the streets of Juba or in any other part of the Country? Go ahead and bring in any one that wants to help you and let the war continue.

It’s not clear what problem this "war" is supposed to solve.
The results are thousands of civilians dead for no reason.
The cause of war was this fabrication of a "coup" which could not be proved, even in the Government’s own courts.

if the case is true that south sudan is truly supporting JEM, then we have the right to support machar. we will make him crush both salva and his ugandan troops. all we have to do is provide machar with all the needed hardware and give him the air support, they would be in Juba within days. now that south sudan is facing the worst famine in africa, i hope kiir uses his brains wisely.

North Sudanese,
Riek Machar and other militias from South Sudan were supported by same NiF before against the SPLA but were then both defeated. Now SPLA runs a country. NiF and its former ally will stand again to lose. In fact, SAF officially supporting Riek’s militias will allow SPLA to officially supply tanks and weapons to SPLA-N and Darfur rebel groups.

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